ALGIERS
A street scene in Algiers near the mosque.
THE MEDITERRANEAN TRIP
As your eye traces the coast line on the map and you note the countries whose shores are washed by the Mediterranean, you realize what a trip throughout that sea must mean in instruction as well as in delights of travel. Besides the countries I have named, there are Turkey, Asia Minor, Palestine, and Egypt, to say nothing of the great stretch on the African coast. The shore line is so extended, and the life and customs at different points vary so, that we think of the Mediterranean as not one thing, but many things. What is usually called a “Mediterranean trip” rarely comprises more than ten or fifteen points. With limited time, the traveler naturally selects the points of which he has heard most.
ALGIERS
ALGIERS
A scene near the busy market.
A Mediterranean trip to many travelers means Algiers (al-jeerz´), as far as the African coast is concerned, and the Riviera, with all the points on that beautiful north shore line. Then they must see Naples, of course, and after passing down the Italian coast they are likely to go straight on to Egypt. After passing through the straits of Gibraltar the attention of the traveler is soon centered on Algiers.
From the entrance to the harbor Algiers appears like a white diamond set in a circle of emeralds. The town consists of two parts, the French and the Arab quarters. To the visitor from the west Algiers is most interesting; for there he meets characters of all kinds, European peoples mixing with those of North Africa. The French quarters show that the Frenchman, when compelled to live in another country, takes a bit of Paris with him; for there is found the typical French café, with its little tables on the sidewalk, contrasting with the Arab café where natives, in their picturesque white costumes, sit and sip their coffee and gossip with wild gesticulation. Even in its African population Algiers is oddly mixed. Each tribe has its own peculiar costume, the marketplace often looking like a stage of a comic opera, only much more artistic and natural.